Call it congressional potty parity. Speaker-to-be John Boehner will install the first-ever women's restroom next to the floor of the House of Representatives, converting an office just steps away from where lawmakers cast votes and debate legislation. It mirrors the space occupied by a men's restroom on the other side of the House chamber. Female members of the House have long complained that while their male colleagues can duck in and out of a men's room right next to the chamber, their closest available restroom is in the Congressional Women's Reading Room, across the ornate Statuary Hall. The new restroom will be in what's now the office of the House parliamentarian — the official who advises lawmakers on legislative procedure. That office will be relocated. The 2011 Republican-controlled Congress will have 71 female members. A women's room adjacent to the Senate floor was installed in 1993, after the so-called "year of the woman" when five were elected to that chamber.

an inside job

One way to wipe costs off the books

There probably won't be any squeeze tests, but Iowa prisons could soon be stocking prison-made toilet paper to save taxpayers money and provide jobs to inmates. The Des Moines Register reports inmates at two Iowa prisons are testing a single-ply tissue processed at a Missouri prison. Iowa prisons use about 900,000 rolls of toilet paper annually. Processing it in-house would save about $100,000 a year and create jobs for about 50 inmates.

class project

Students provethat pie = record

Hundreds of students at a New Jersey prep school can now add "pie thrower in a world record pie fight" to their list of accomplishments on college applications. Guinness World Records recently confirmed the Lawrenceville School in central New Jersey set the record for the biggest custard pie fight with 671 students and staff members. The record is based on the number of participants. The school needed at least 435. Each had to have access to at least two edible pies. The 6-ounce, chocolate-custard pies were baked at the school by students and volunteers. The Nov. 11 event also raised just over $15,000 for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.

a special tweet

140 characters worth $20,000

A California high school senior turned a single tweet into a $20,000 college scholarship. The Twitter entry from Amanda Russell, 17, was selected from more than 2,800 that competed for the scholarship offered by a foundation for the Louisville-based KFC restaurant chain. Russell reached the 140 character limit for the contest, so she'll get $142 per character to pursue her college dreams — a career as a doctor or medical researcher. The winning tweet refers to the chain's late founder, Colonel Harland Sanders, and says: "Hey Colonel! Your scholarship's the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!"